Of Mists and Monsoons traces the varying fortunes of a young man caught up in the horror of the Irish Famine of the mid-19th Century. The story unfolds as he is rescued from certain death by starvation along with the rest of his family, and joins the British Army as a drummer boy, and travels to India. This remarkable character finds himself caught up in the Indian Mutiny 10 years later, but survives to found a family of his own. The leading character is loosely based on the author's own great-grandfather, who did leave Ireland in the mid 18th Century and travel to India with the British Army where he founded a family dynasty that endured until Partition in 1946. Anecdotes from the author's mother and extended family are used freely in the text.